Former B.C. health minister Terry Lake says Ottawa still has not heeded the warnings of how serious the opioid crisis is, despite how much it has ravaged the province.
Ottawa has ruled out decriminalizing heroin use, and won’t declare a national health emergency.
Lake said there’s even still resistance in Ontario to supervised injection sites which he says has saved countless lives in B.C.
“We should be helping people to keep people alive so when they do need help they’re still alive to get it.”
He said the fact the crisis has lasted longer than anyone expected points to the complexity of the problem.
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“We need to continue the education campaign, the supports in place for people dealing with addiction, and to make people aware of the very real danger today in using drugs like cocaine, like crystal meth, and like heroin,” said Lake.
According to the most recent numbers from the BC Coroners, the number of drug overdoses this year so far is up 88 per cent from the same time last year.